It is not often that Court 10 at Southwick draws the largest crowd of the day. But that is where the late afternoon entertainment was to be found on Day One of the 2016 Opens when Reg Bamford, the top seed (and until this match the top-ranked player in the world) met a regular Opens opponent, the hard-hitting, if mercurial, Pierre Beaudry, a member of the Dulwich Club and proud representative of Belgium. His Dulwich membership ensured the presence of his own supporters group in the shape of Messrs, Carter, Dymond, Haydon, Scurfield and Tibble.

Pierre took the opening game 7-6 which provoked a classic Bamford response of going 5-0 up in game 2 and squaring the match with a 7-2 win. Game 3 was more balanced but it was Pierre who edged ahead by 5-3 and had good chances of 6-3 after Reg missed a 5 yard hoop attempt. However, Pierre's own two chances also failed and the game was soon 5-5. A Bamford miss from the north boundary allowed Pierre to run 11 for a 6-5 lead and there then developed the most amusing cat-and-mouse game as Reg, as Tom, attempted to create a chance to gain the first approach to 13, while Pierre, aka Jerry, showed absolutely no inclination to co-operate.

The duel was fascinating but has to be accounted a failure for the cat because he ended up having to run 12 from the N boundary! Pierre then produced a slightly accidental masterstroke with K, lagging up to 13 from 20 yards, getting the line a little wrong and running from the 10 side of 13 into 12 inch running position! Reg had only half a ball to aim at with Y from SSW of 12, about 25 yards, and was bang on line with Y - but alas just nicked the W wire by the faintest of touches to leave K unmoved. B now ensured it could do no damage by being played well to the W of K and now Reg had his last throw of the die by attempting to run 10 from 28 yards! This also started out on line but bent just a little and also grazed the W wire to leave K still in its dolly position. Pierre made no mistake and the crowd saluted the entertainers for a truly wonderfully watchable match.